


Protective

by Hopeful_Foolx



Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Also Poison, Gen, Human shield, Hurt Caleb Widogast, Hurt Nott (Critical Role), Hurt/Comfort, Protective Caleb, We stan a wizard and his goblin mom, Whumptober 2019, but like really minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-25 22:28:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20919653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hopeful_Foolx/pseuds/Hopeful_Foolx
Summary: Ambushed at night, Nott is in a tricky situation and Caleb... Will not let anything happen to her.Whumptober Day five, human shield.





	Protective

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know when this happens, but I will never accept Mollys fate, so, yeah.  
Whumptober day 4 - human shield. I am also not a native englisch speaking person, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes. Love ya!

A split second is all it takes. They get ambushed at night, spending another night at the side of the road when Caleb alerts them that his silver thread woke him up. Nott doesn’t even know who the attackers are, but they want their stuff, possibly their lives, and they are strong. Yasha yasha’d again, she likes the word, and she is not the only one who wishes the barbarian to be here.

Nott loads her crossbow with nimble but shaking fingers. There is blood in her arm where one of the arrows struck her in the shoulder, cutting deep, but she is ready to pay the bickering men back for it. Left to her is Caleb, shooting her worried glances, Jester too far away on the other side of camp where Fjord is engaged with one of the attackers, Beau with another, and that leaves two for Caleb, Nott and Molly. These people can see her goblin form, and for some reason they tease around. She tries to pay not too much mind to it and succeeds, when there is a sharp pain in her leg and she can see another shaft sticking out of it. Someone is behind them, another one who didn’t partake in combat yet. She groans and it becomes harder to keep herself upright, but she still shoots. Now there are two things she tries to keep her mind off, great. Three if she counts the fact that her shoulder is bleeding too.

There is light to her right, she looks to Caleb as he turns around in one fluent motion, sending a firebolt into the woods, hitting something, and she is grateful for it. There is not much to do with her crossbow now that the one in front of them comes closer, shortsword in hand, so she takes out her own, ducks out of the way to the side. She knows she will be too slow to run, and she can’t take the arrow out without losing more blood than she can, not that there is enough time anyway. She ducks down, too slow, too slowed by the pain, she sees the blade and readies herself for the pain, a sharp pain, maybe cold, she readies herself for falling unconscious from it -but it doesn’t come. Instead there is a grunt, the sound of cutting cloth and another grunt, this one far too familiar for her liking, but no pain.

“If you want her, you have to kill me first.”

“Caleb…” she breathes and looks up. He is standing before her, shielding her, one hand stretched out, his dagger in the other. He never fights like this and she doesn’t want him to, but there is not much she can do from her place on the forest floor. The picture makes her dizzy, she can’t get away, she can’t leave him alone like this, but there he is, her boy whom she swore to protect, protecting her. The rustling of leaves and a pained grunt from her right, Molly, she assumes, taking care of the other guy, hopefully enough to help them.

“I don’t think that this will be a problem…” The voice is calm, the man chuckling again, but Caleb doesn’t move, the hand with the dagger is still and calm. And for a moment, everything freezes. She feels like an outsider of the scene, not in her body, not able to change something, not able to move.

“Don’t. Touch. Her.” His voice is cold. There is another comment from the attacker she can’t hear because suddenly it is even louder, and the world tilts to the side or maybe it is just her, but it’s the last thing she remembers before the world goes dark.

When she wakes up it’s morning and someone is talking next to her.

“I do think it is actually really unfair to poison arrows. But pretty clever too, I think. You are already down and hey, surprise! But not if it happens to one of us, though. These guys were just assholes.” Jester. Jester is next to him. That must mean everything is fine, right?

“Yeah, I agree.” she mumbles and blinks weakly. There is green above her, and blue, as Jesters smiling face appears, looking down at her and the back up.

“Nott! Guys! Nott’s awake!” Her shouting makes Notts head spin but that is still better than.. whatever happened before, because when she moves her arm and legs there is no pain there. She tries to sit up and there is a hand behind her back helping her lean against a tree, a waterskin pressed into her hands. It is just now that the memory comes back. She whips her head around scanning the forest, Jester, Molly, Beau, Fjord -

“Caleb?!”

“Ja?” He kneels down in front of her, settling Frumpkin on her lap. There is blood on his clothes and a gash on his shirt, he seems pale but fine, alive, alive here with her… And it just breaks down at this moment.

“Are you okay? What did you think you were doing! You’re so squishy, you could have just died from that! I can take a punch, but you, you-”

He gives her a raised eyebrow and a deep sigh, and she can see him swallowing down everything from telling her that she was the one who passed out to the fact that he was not a child. He doesn’t say any of this as he just hugs her in his clumsy way, touching enough to hold her but still not sure about her space.

She closes her eyes for a moment.

When she opens them she can see Fjord passing Beau a handfull of gold.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading!  
I am also @loves-already-won on Tumblr if you want to yell at me or something :D


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